Track lubricator



INVENTOR JAMES BRUCE M WILL M5 1 Q I I P K J. B. M WILLIAMS TRACKLUBRICATQR Filed Jan; 26, 1962- Dec. 29, 1964 3,163,257 TRACK LUaRrcATonJames B. McWilliams, Pittsburgh, Pa, assignor to Railway. MaintenanceCorporation, Pittsburgh, Pin, a corporation of Pennsylvania, and Poor &Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Filed Jan. 26, 1962,Ser. No. 168,986 3 Claims. (Cl. 184-3) This invention relates :torailway track lubricators which supply grease to the gauge side ofrailroad rails as a result of the wheels of passing cars actuatinggrease pumping means. i V

The flow of grease from the pump through the track side lubricator issubjected to two operational factors,

namely the speed of trains operating on the trackand' ditions eventhough a standard type grease is used for the purpose.

Accordingly, a primary object of the invention is to eliminate variationin the quantity or amountof grease supplied by the pump to thelubricator, and to secure an approximately uniform discharge of greaseunder all 7 speed and temperature conditions.

A further object of the invention is to effect the desired control ofthe grease supply through a relief valve which may be selectively set toaccomplish the desired result. This valve is located in the top of thegrease storage tank and in communication with the pipe supplying greasefrom the pump to the track lubricator and in all valve settings, returnsexcess quantities of grease to the tank supply. This provides agitationof the grease in the storage tank upon each operation of the pump. Oncethe valve is set for a given installation in a particular area, itfunctions with minimum maintenance requirementssince only two yearlysettings may be required, thereby not only saving grease, but, at thesame time, reducing time and expense of frequent inspections.

With the above and other objects in view which will appear as the natureof the invention is better understood, the invention consists in thenovel construction, combination, and arrangement of parts, hereinaftermore fully described, illustrated ad claimed. I

A preferred and practical embodiment of the invention is shown in theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of a railway track lubricatorsystem.

FIGURE 2 is a vertical cross sectional view of the grease storage tankand the relief valve.

FIGURE 3 is a detail view of the settable relief valve.

FIGURE 4 is a plan view of the dial of the valve of FIGURE 3.

Referring to FIGURE 1, it will be seen that the rail R at the field sideof the track is provided with a pair of lubricators L.

Each lubricator is supplied with grease by a pipe line 1 which connectswith a distribution fitting 2 located at the track side beyond the ties,the said fitting 2 being, in turn, connected by piping 3 supported inthe top of one wall of the grease tank T. This tank is, as usual, buriedin the right-of-way at the field side of the installation.

The grease line 3 includes, within the tank, the verti- 3,163,257Patented Dee. 29, 1964 cally extending pump leg 4 connected at its lowerend with the discharge of a suitable pump P. The top of the pump leg 4communicates with a vertically positioned T-section 5, the latterarranged with a bottom vertical inlet, and thereabove two oppositelydirected horizontal axis discharges.

Within the tank and communicating directly with one of the horizontalaxis discharges of the T-section, is'a horizontal axis pressure settablerelief valve designated generally as V. The relief valve has adownwardly directed bottom discharge, spaced above the top level of thegrease. The relief valve is thus self draining, and the proper operationof the track lubricator may be checked by observing this tell-taledischarge. As' both the valve inlet and the valve discharge or thereturn to tank are female threaded and are shown '(e.g. FIG. 3) as thesame diameter, there will be free discharge to the tank of all lubricantwhich passes by the valve seat and head.

The relief valve is accessible by removing the cover C from the tank.Therefore, it may be conveniently observed and reached when the cover isremoved, but, the grease is otherwise completely protected from theweather, including moisture and dust, and unauthorized changes in thesettings of the valve are minimized.

As will be observed from FIGURES 3 and 4, the said valve V includes astern 6.surroundcd by a spring V the said stem having a valve head 7 atone'end which may be adjusted relative to the annular seat in the valveaccording to the pressure placed thereon by the spring V that is to say,the spring is confined between the rear face of the valve head '7 and acollar 8, which latter abuts against the plug 9 threadingly engaged withrelative to the casing, the compression of the spring will be greater orless to make the valve head 7 correspondingly bear on its seat. When theviscosity of the grease is low, in other Words when the grease is morefluid, the load onthe valve will be less, and vice versa. The outerportion of the screw plug 9 has a dial D, in the form of a disc, weldedthereto for cooperation with a pointer E secured to the valve casing.The screw plugalso has secured thereto a cap nut or similar operatingmember 10.

When the non-circular portion of the cap nut is engaged by a suitabletool, for example an open end wrench, the cap nut, dial, and plug 9 willrotate together, upon applying hand pressure, in an angular direction,on the tool.

The dial D is suitably calibrated as indicated at D D and D forcooperation with said pointer E. As will be seen from FIGURE 4, theposition D is associted with the legend Below 0 to 32; the position D ismarked 3260; the position D is marked Above 60. It will thus seen fromthe legends that the valve may beset within the desired operatingremperature ranges according to the site of installation.

The pump P is operated by suitable shafting S such, for example, as thatshown in my Patent No. 3,015,370, issued January 2, 1962, and includesthe ramp R- located at the field side of the rail.

The shafting S is mounted so as to permit universal vertical andhorizontal movement between the ramp lever assembly and the grease tank.This movement may be As shown in the patent referred to, means isprovided 7 to vertically adjust the ramp to control the height of theramp contact point with reference to the top of the rail head. Passingcar wheels depress the ramp, causing rotation of shaft S to actuate thepumping means which may a be either of the piston type shown, or, insome cases, a rotary type pump.

Setting of the ramp contact point with reference to the top of the railhead determines the amount of rotation imparted to the shaft S, which,in turn, determines the stroke or rotation imparted to the pump P andthe volume of grease discharge per wheel contact. This method of settingthe ramp does not fully take into consideration the variation in thespeed of trains passing over the lubricator with accompanyingdifferences in impact of wheels on the ramp. For example, thedisplacement of the pumpingrneans with the same setting of the rampabove the rail head, due to inertia of parts, may be'many times as greatfor high speed operationas for slow speed.

Grease is delivered from the pump P through the piping connections andpassages in the distributing plate of the lubricator at the gauge sideof the rail. Tests have shown that the pressure required to force theliquid through a series of pipes and passages vaiies directly withvolume, speed, and viscosity of the grease.

In order to prevent the variation in the supply of grease and secure anapproximately uniform discharge under all speed and temperatureconditions, the relief valve V is introduced into the discharge line 3from the pump. This valve is set at a pressure substantially equal tothe average back pressure for a given ramp setting which will deliverthe required amount of grease at an average train speed. The setting ischecked by observing the downwardly di rected impacting discharge fromthe valve upon the tank contents. Higher back pressure, due to higherthan average speed, will cause more surplus grease to be discharged backinto the tank.

Higher temperatures lower the viscosity of the grease: and reduce thepressure required to force grease through the pipes and passages, thusreducing the desired pressure setting of the relief valve. Therefore,the relief valve is adjustable so that the setting can be changed forsummer and winter operations to control the average quantity of greasedischarge at various temperatures. For any given setting, there isalways a constant supply of grease from the tank to the lubricator, andin some cases, particularly in the winter, the actuation of the ramp andvalve are set to cause a small part of this constant supply to becontinually returned to the tank at average train speeds. This continualreturn, particularly by the valve discharged dropping of material uponthe main body of grease in the tank, produces an agitation, and a lowerand more uniform grease viscosity, and thus provides better flowconditions to the distributing plate.

Accordingly, it will now be seen that the present invention proposes toregulate or control the supply of grease to be as uniform as possibleunder the varying conditions set forth. When the setting of the reliefvalve is changed for hot and cold Weather conditions, the ramp can beadjusted for both rail wear and wear upon its striking face. Therefore,the maintenance factor to supply proper but unwasteful quantities ofgrease can be reduced to two inspections per year, well knowing that thequantity of grease in the tank will not be abnormally reduced betweeninspections.

I claim:

'1. In a railway track including afield side rail, the combinationcomprising,

a track atfixed grease distributormounted on said rail,

a ramp lever at the field side of the rail and adjustable with respectto the head thereof,

a top-covered grease supply tank, a pump with suction in the tank bottomand actuated by impulses from charging by a vertically oriented outletdownwardly with undiminished velocity upon the tank contents;

to thereby return surplus grease to the supply tank at a given settingof the ramp lever.

2. In a railway track system, in which rolling stock passes over therails at varying speed,

a top-cover possessinglubricant storage tank buried in the earth at thefield side of a rail,

. a lubricant distributor at the gauge'side of at least one rail,

a conduit between the tank and the distributor,

means for regulating the supply of lubricant from the storage tank tothe distributor including,

a pump with suction in the base of the storage tank and a discharge intosaid conduit,

shafting connected at one end to the pump for operating the same,

a ramp at the field side of one rail vertically adjustable in relationto the headcf the rail to be struck and thus variably moved by thepassing car wheels,

a connection between the ramp and the other end of the shafting forpowering the pump,

and an adjustable relief valve in the top of the tank settable foraverage speed of passing car Wheels and calibratedrin terms of variabletemperature conditions,

sa-idvalve having a constantly open upwardly receiving communication atits inlet with said conduit and a relief discharge outlet having asubstantially equal sized opening directed vertically downwardly towardsthe unobstructed top of the contents of the storage tank to impactivelyreturn lubricant in excess of the predetermined set positions of thevalve and ramp into the body of the lubricant so as to agitate it andthus help to maintain a uniform viscosity therein.

3. In a railway track system according to claim 2,

wherein,

a the valve includes a casing with a valve seat adjacent to and facingaway from the valve inlet,

a movable head coaxial with and cooperating with the seat, and thusbeing exposed on its seating side to the pres: sures of lubricant in thepump discharge, an axially apertured screw plug threaded into the casingcoaxial with the'head, l a coaxial guided stem fixed to the head, thestem slidably passing through and having an extension slightly beyondthe plug, 7 a pressure spring surrounding said stem, one end abut tingsaid plug and the other end abutting said head, the other side of thehead thus being exposed to variable spring pressures, a temperaturecalibrated circular disc fixed to and revolvable with the plug,

and a singly marked pointer on the outside of the valve .casing andadjacent the periphery of the disc; whereby upon inspection of the valvefrom the cover end of the tank during ramp depressions by the carWheels,

the amount of lubrication discharged from the relief valve outlet may beobserved,

the movement of the head may be checked by the movement of the stemextension,

and the pointer and calibration juxtaposition may be observed andaltered when required.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS433,471 Cunneen ct. 14, 1890 1,270,952 Jones July 2, 1918 1,343,160Schmidt June 8, 1920 1,491,683 Donnell Apr. 22, 1924 2,884,093 StewartApr. 28, 1959 McWilliams Mar. 22, 1960

1. IN A RAILWAY TRACK INCLUDING A FIELD SIDE RAIL, THE COMBINATIONCOMPRISING, A TRACK AFFIXED GREASE DISTRIBUTOR MOUNTED ON SAID RAIL, ARAMP LEVER AT THE FIELD SIDE OF THE RAIL AND ADJUSTABLE WITH RESPECT TOTHE HEAD THEREOF, A TOP-COVERED GREASE SUPPLY TANK, A PUMP WITH SUCTIONIN THE TANK BOTTOM AND ACTUATED BY IMPULSES FROM THE RAMP LEVER, APRESSURE CONDUIT CONNECTING THE PUMP WITH THE GREASE DISTRIBUTOR, AND ANADJUSTABLY SETTABLE RELIEF VALVE CALIBRATED IN TERMS OF TEMPERATURE ANDWITHIN AND ADJACENT THE TOP OF THE TANK AND COMMUNICATING BY AN UPWARDLYRECEIVING INLET WITH THE PRESSURE CONDUIT AND DIS-